


Sentimental Fools

by Calephelis



Category: Kamen Rider OOO
Genre: (but pre-Megamax), Eiji's quest to revive Ankh - from Ankh's PoV, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Satonaka and the Izumi siblings make a brief appearance, everyone else is only mentioned (so far)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 00:28:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28769346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calephelis/pseuds/Calephelis
Summary: “So! You want to revive Ankh.” It wasn’t a question; unsurprisingly, Kougami seemed to know exactly why Eiji was there before he even said anything. Ankh always hated that about him.Eiji, for his part, faltered for only a second. “Er, yes. I was hoping for your help with that.”If Ankh wasn’t currently an intangible spirit, he’d have shook the idiot until what little brains he had fell out.[unfinished; unsure when I'll pick this back up]
Relationships: Ankh & Hino Eiji
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	Sentimental Fools

_Is this what second-hand embarrassment feels like?_ Ankh thought to himself. 

He’d been watching Eiji bumble his way through Mexico City for a week, and not a day went by where the Greeed didn’t question his life choices because of something the idiot had (or hadn’t) done. This time it was at the Central de Abastos -- Eiji was supposed to be shopping for groceries, his food rations having fallen woefully short, but _of course_ he would be distracted by a lost little girl crying for her mother. It was a painful scene to watch, in part because Eiji’s Spanish was _atrocious_. Not that Ankh’s was any better (he was really only fluent in Japanese and an old dialect of German that was, by now, outdated), but even he could see how much Eiji and the girl were struggling to understand one another.

“Ah, well, uh, dónde were you, uh, antes?” Ankh heard Eiji say in a terrible mix of Japanese, Spanish, and English.

“¿Qué?” was the girl’s confused, I’m-intimidated-by-this-strange-foreigner-but-too-afraid-to-leave reply.

_Damnit Eiji, just ditch her! You’ve wasted enough time as it is!_

“What...? Oh, I-I mean, de, de dónde v-veni--”

“¡Sofía!” Before Eiji could embarrass himself further, a young couple -- the girl’s parents, it seemed -- came swooping in and ushered the girl away. Eiji sighed with relief; he’d been in Mexico for nearly a month now, and he _still_ hadn’t gotten used to the language barrier. If it weren’t for his iPhone and free wifi, he wouldn’t have even known nearly as much Spanish as he did now.

_Only an idiot like you would forget to buy a phrasebook before visiting a foreign country._

Ankh almost missed the sheepish look Eiji directed toward him -- in fact, it happened so fast that Ankh was certain he had imagined it. And, as Eiji resumed browsing the stalls for fresh vegetables and fruit (and with mercifully few further distractions), he made no indication that he really had seen Ankh.

Ankh was used to this by now. He’d been following Eiji for months and their dynamic -- if you could even call it that -- hadn’t changed: Eiji would do something stupid, often get himself in trouble in the process, and Ankh would scream ineffectually at him until he stopped doing the stupid thing. Occasionally, Eiji might act like he’d finally taken notice of Ankh, but for the most part the Greeed’s voice fell on deaf ears. He hadn’t truly seen or heard him once this entire time.

And why would he? Ankh was supposed to be dead.

. . .

 _“So! You want to revive Ankh.” It wasn’t a question; unsurprisingly, Kougami seemed to know_ exactly _why Eiji was there before he even said anything. Ankh always hated that about him._

_Eiji, for his part, faltered for only a second. “Er, yes. I was hoping for your help with that.”_

_If Ankh wasn’t currently an intangible spirit, he’d have shook the idiot until what little brains he had fell out._

_“Of course I’ll help you!” Kougami boomed as he put the finishing touches on the cake he had been decorating (because_ of course _he was making another damn cake). “Ah, but what sort of help were you looking for?”_

_“I want all the information you have on the alchemy used to make the Core Medals.”_

_Kougami looked up from his cake and grinned at Eiji. “It sounds like you’ve already put some thought into this._ I approve! _But! I would like something from you in return. Satonaka?”_

_“Got it.” Satonaka always sounded bored no matter what she was doing; Ankh hated that, too. She stood up and handed Eiji a stack of papers that, the Greeed realized, had been in her lap the entire time._

_“It’s true that I and my researchers know much about how the Medals were made,” Kougami explained as Eiji began reading over the papers, “but I’m afraid we do not know everything.”_

_“I figured as much,” Eiji said. “That’s part of the reason why I want to start traveling again, to work with your researchers first-hand.”_

_“_ Wonderful! _Then we’re on the same page!” Kougami looked_ much _too satisfied for Ankh’s liking. “I had that contract prepared shortly after you’d made your appointment. Did you know that Satonaka is a very fast typist? That’s one of the reasons I hired her!”_

_“Oh, really? That’s gre-- uhhh. It says here you want to use one-third of what I find to ‘make new Core Medals’?”_

_Ankh_ knew _there was another reason he didn’t like Kougami._

 _“Yes! It really is a shame what happened. So much pure desire, lost!_ So much wasted potential! _And you can’t become OOO anymore, either!”_

_“That’s true, I guess, but I don’t think the answer is to make more Greeed.”_

_“I understand your concern, but! Aren’t_ you _trying to bring a Greeed back from the dead?”_

_“Er, yeah, but…”_

_This went on for a few minutes. Eventually, Kougami managed to assure Eiji that he_ wasn’t _planning on making the Medals sentient like the last batch had been, only to make them “the purest conduits of desire”, whatever the hell that meant. Ankh could only watch in horror as Eiji signed the contract, ensuring that Ankh’s revival hinged solely on whether or not Kougami intended to hold up his side of the bargain. Knowing him, he was likely leaving some details out to get Eiji to agree._

_This was really, really going to suck._

_. . ._

It was just his luck that Eiji would be the one to have kept his last surviving Core. Frankly, Ankh was surprised that the idiot hadn't lost it yet; he kept the broken pieces close and with the same reverence he held for Tomorrow's Underwear, and Ankh was still unsure if he should feel honored or disgusted by that. Usually, he preferred not to think about it -- why should _he_ care what Eiji did with his Core? It wasn’t as though Ankh could do anything about it, so as far as he was concerned Eiji could go ahead and be a sentimental fool as much as he liked.

Still, he couldn’t deny that he was thankful for such sentimentalism when Eiji decided he wanted to start traveling the world again. Chiyoko had been ecstatic, of course, and if she didn’t have a restaurant to attend to she likely would have gone with him. Shingo had given him an iPhone as a gift “so he could stay in touch”, which alleviated much of Hina’s worries over Eiji going off on his own (even after Eiji assured her that he would be fine). Gotou had wished him well and made him promise to call them if he were in trouble, while Date had decided to join him -- for a little while, at least. Though Eiji had been pretty frugal with his salary from working at Cous Coussier, he didn’t have _nearly_ enough money for a single overseas vacation, _let alone_ a worldwide journey, and no one knew where Eiji was getting his funds from.

(Ankh kind of wished he didn’t know, either.)

Date seemed to have an idea, however, and had decided he wanted to keep an eye on Eiji, “just in case.” Ankh couldn’t blame him for that, nor could he pretend that Hina’s worries were entirely unfounded. Eiji was capable, yes, but without others there to slap some sense into him every once in a while he would’ve gotten himself killed many times over by now.

That was, Ankh realized, likely the reason why he was still here too, hanging on to the promise of life by the thinnest of threads.

He’d been thinking about this ever since his Core Medal had broken in two -- by all rights, that Core shouldn’t exist anymore. _He_ shouldn’t exist anymore! Yet here he was, following this idiot human around like a lost chick, less whole than he had been when they’d first met. He couldn’t even throw anything at Eiji because he was a _damn spirit_ and everything he tried to touch passed right through him. But even more irritating was the fact that he couldn’t bring himself to be angry at Eiji for it, because Ankh knew, on some instinctual level, that part of it was _his_ fault.

Damn humans and their damn emotions rubbing off on him. Ugh. 

Accommodations made and expenses paid, Eiji and Date set off barely a week after Eiji’s initial announcement -- but not before revealing to Hina and Shingo what his motivations actually were.

( _“You… want to bring Ankh back?” Hina said._

_“Can you even do that?” Shingo said._

_Eiji smiled. “Honestly? I don’t know. But I’m going to try.”_ )

Of _course_ the siblings were supportive of the idea, because they were just as much sentimental fools as Eiji was. Still, it was… _nice_ , knowing that they cared, even if Ankh felt it was futile. But a part of him -- the part that he liked to ignore -- hoped it wouldn’t be.

**Author's Note:**

> So. Uh. This is a really, really old WIP that I've had sitting around for YEARS, and after looking over it yet again I finally decided to publish (most) of what I had written. I'd originally intended not to publish any of it until it was more complete, but honestly? I kinda like what I already have well enough that I felt I could share it.
> 
> Like I said in the summary, I'm not sure when I'll go back to this. The outline I'd written years ago isn't NEARLY as fleshed-out as my outlines nowadays, so I don't even entirely remember where I was going with it, and I have about 4-5 other WIPs that I've been bouncing between. So, I'm afraid there won't likely be any updates any time soon. I hope what I've already written is still fun to read, though!


End file.
